Above: Spencer Bushnell leads the 1/2 race on the bell lap at the 1st ever Albany Criterium (photo: Ivar Vong)

Some Podiums

Jeff DeWolf - Kings Valley Road Race cat4/5 3rd place

Ericka Luckel - Deschutes River Valley TT Festival cat3/4 - 2nd place: Stage 2; Stage 3; 2nd place GC

Carl Hoefer - Estacada TT Sr. Men 4/27 - 2nd place

Jeff Standish - Eric Kautzky Memorial Track Race cat4 - 2nd place

Spencer Bushnell - Mt Hood Cycling Classic Hood River Criterium cat3 - 2nd place

And Some Wins!

Spencer Bushnell fought hard for a good win and upgrade to cat2 at the Eugene Roubaix!

Casey Deck was patient with his weekly sprints until he finally won the last two Downtown Hood River Criteriums!

Ericka Luckel sure can time trial and won the opening stage of the women’s 3/4 Deschutes River Valley TT Festival!

Brian Mack had an awesome bike toss at the line to win the cat4 race by a hair at the State Road Race Championships!

Pam Archer won the 19-39 sport class at the Mudslinger!

And some special mentions:

Derek Stallings was on his way to [most likely] win the final stage of the Mt Hood Cycling Classic in the cat2/3 Hood River Criterium but took himself out with 2 corners to go. He can’t be disappointed because he and the others from the team all put in fantastic rides in the hardest race on the OBRA Calendar!

And then there’s Brandon Dyer finishing 5th GC in the cat3’s at Mt Hood in his first year with a team. We look forward to a lot more good results from Brandon!

Scott Gray is back to riding his bike after a serious fracture of his lower leg while alpine skiing this winter!

(finish camera photo: Brian List, OBRA)

Bill and Brenna were in Shandong Provence, China, for a couple weeks and came home just before the earthquake struck Sichuan. When we were there, the mood of the country was celebratory in anticipation of the Olympics this summer. “Beijing 2008″ and “Go China!” were the cries everywhere we went. Being cyclists, we fit right in with the masses and bought some bikes for $11 each and set off riding all over Qingdao on our single speed cruisers.

We were visiting a former TAI Cycling member, Turner Gutmann, who’s teaching at a university with his wife, Sara. Turner was invited to participate in a cycling tour from Qingdao to Beijing ahead of the Olympics to promote cycling, awareness of cycling and the main sponsor — a milk company. The ride organizers put on a Bike Talent Show Series over a few weekends in various locations and the winners of the talent show were put into a lottery to win a spot on the 7-day bike tour, along with a new road bike. (more…)